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HOV TO GET MUSCULAR. 


FIVE ADDRESSES ON HIGHER 

ATHLETICS. 



ICHARLES WADSWORTH, Jr. 

• « 



■ I beseech you to be well. ’ —Emerson, 

- rr 

J 

NEW YORK: 

ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 

38 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET. 





Copyright, 1891, by 

ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY. 


TO THE 


jnemorji of ni« fafljcr, 
CHARLES WADSWORTH, D.D. 


who will ever stand out in the thought of all who knew him 

“a strong man,” 


THESE ADDRESSES ARE DEDICATED. 



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NOTE, 


There can be no doubt that Athletics is to-day 
the leading topic among young men. Being a 
voung man myself, and an enthusiast in the 
matter of exercise, I look at the question, so to 
speak, from the inside. The aim of these ad- 
dresses has been to emphasize a few of the ideas 
which this interesting subject suggests. 


North Broad Street Church, 
Philadelphia, January, 1891. 



CONTENTS 


PAGB 


I. Strength 3 

II. Exercise 2i 

III. Rest and Food 45 

IV. Air 67 

V. Religion 89 





I. 

STRENGTH. 


** A strong man.*’ 

— Psalms xix. 5. 


Strength. 




STRENGTH. 

The idol of to-day is muscle. The multi- 
tude worships a great biceps. The Israelites 
bowed down before a calf of gold ; to-day it is 
a calf of flesh that receives the homage of the 
public. Hercules is the popular deity. A 
prize-fight eclipses even a scandal in our re- 
gard. And where three care for grand music, 
and where two care for art, and where one 
cares for truth, ten thousand will be deeply 
interested in base-ball. We are not a musical 
people, we are not an artistic people, we are 
not a philosophic people. We are a gymnastic 
people. The dumb-bell and the boxing-glove 
ought to be woven upon our flag. 

This spirit has penetrated even the strong- 
holds of culture, and in the halls where Minerva 
once held sway, Hercules will now be found 
enshrined. The principal topic of conversation 


4 How to get Muscular. 

among college men is foot-ball. The smaller 
colleges take grade according to their records 
in competitive games. The prominent under- 
graduates are those who can run or row. And, 
without exaggeration, we may say that, in 
some cases, students have been superseded by 
jumping-jacks. 

Against the importance and desirability of 
athletics I have not a word to say. No one 
can rejoice more heartily than myself in the 
wisdom which cares for the body and its de- 
velopment. I am thankful that we have ad- 
vanced beyond the days when neglect of the body 
was regarded as an evidence of piety. If Carlyle 
had ‘not suffered so from dyspepsia, his work 
would have been more valuable. Generally 
speaking, a man who has a diseased body has 
diseased thoughts. The helpful men have been 
healthful men. Charles Dickens could walk 
astounding distances ; Gladstone is physically a 
giant. We know little of Shakespeare, but I am 
confident that his sublime intellect was not trou- 


Strength. 


5 


bled with bodily ailments. The basis of our exist- 
ence in this world is physical. If the foundation 
totters the superstructure cannot be firm. We 
cannot exaggerate the importance of the bodily 
life ; and too much care cannot be taken of it. 

The prevailing enthusiasm for athletics is a 
much-needed reaction from a most unwise in- 
difference. The last generation neglected phys- 
ical development. It, perhaps, did not matter so 
much years ago, for a large proportion of the 
young men of the land were then raised upon 
farms. They found their gymnasium in the har- 
vest field and behind the plow. Milking devel- 
oped their grip, and pitching hay developed 
their shoulders. Instead of swinging Indian clubs 
they sawed wood ; and instead of pulling chest- 
weights they hoed corn. This is after all the 
best of methods. Constitutions built up by such 
exercises have a toughness of fibre and power 
of endurance which no gymnasium can impart. 
It was such a system of athletics that gave 
Webster and Choate their superb strength. 


6 


How to get Muscular. 


To-day, however, the conditions are changed. 
The thousands of young men in great cities do 
not swing flails or mow grass. They are 
cramped in artificial and unfavorable circum- 
stances. Our system of school life keeps them 
many hours in badly ventilated rooms. Their 
most active out-of-door exercise is carrying a 
huge cane on Chestnut Street. Instead of 
pure air they breathe cigarette-smoke and 
sewer-gas. Under such conditions it is a kind 
Providence that has brought athletics into such 
prominence and awakened such an interest in 
physical development in the hearts of our 
young men. I am glad of it. I recognize its 
necessity. I have great hopes for its results. 
It will greatly increase the health and happi- 
ness and usefulness of the coming generations. 
Whatever adds an inch to man’s shoulders 
adds a year to his life. Whatever increases his 
chest measurement increases his power for 
good. The gymnasium of to-day will cure, or 
what is better will prevent, the dyspepsia of 


Strength. 


7 


to-morrow. If the past generation had taken 
more exercise, the present generation would be 
taking fewer pills. So far as I had any influ- 
ence I would use it among all young people to 
interest them in physical development. A 
vigorous and healthy bodily life is something 
that may be lost by neglect, and, to a degree 
at least, secured and established by the ener- 
getic observance of well-known laws. I am 
glad that the spirit of athletics is busy among 
our young men enlarging muscles, broadening 
shoulders, deepening chests. The result will 
be a finer race, and that paragon of animals, 
that noblest result of the ages — a strong 
man.’' 

While thus I am heartily in sympathy with 
this spirit and bid it God-speed on its mission, 
nevertheless I am not blind to certain absurdi- 
ties and extravagances which are committed in 
its name. Athletics is altogether desirable. 
But athletics gone mad is not so entirely admi- 
rable. The danger lies not in development, 


8 How to get Muscular. 

but in one-sided development. The object 
should be not merely to increase strength. A 
strong brute is not a worthy achievement. A 
strong man ” is the result to be desired. There 
are two things to be secured — muscle and man- 
hood^ stre7igth and character. If either is de- 
veloped without the other, we have only a 
monstrosity on our hands. Strength without 
character is revolting. Character without 
strength is pitiable. The two need to be 
blended together. The character needs to be 
permeated with strength, and the strength 
needs to be shaped by the character. The 
manhood needs to be muscular, and the muscle 
needs to be manly. Each must be full of the 
other. When thus blended, they represent two 
things which God has joined together; and in 
their combination they produce the grandest 
earthly being, a strong man.’' 

The root of manhood is strength, and the 
flower of strength is manhood. They are both 
present in the complete growth of a true life. 


Strength. 


9 


In such a life we have strength in every part of 
the nature. This fibrous quality which avails 
for work, for endurance, for attack, for resist- 
ance will be found not only in the arms, but 
also in the intellect ; in the will no less than in 
the muscles. Every faculty is thus vitalized 

V. 

with power. The individual is strong in every 
part, and at the same time all this strength is 
permeated with character. He is not a strong 
savage. He is a strong man.’' 

We find what I am trying to describe in 
Jesus of Nazareth. Physically He must have 
been full of power. Long journeys were con- 
tinually made, long vigils endured. His arms 
had been hardened in the carpenter-shop at 
Nazareth. No weakling could have taken a 
scourge of small cords and driven out the 
money-changers and dove-sellers from the 
temple, overturning the tables and sweeping 
everything before him. Horrible mediaeval 
paintings and disgusting shrines have pre- 
sented to the world a sorry figure, and fixed 


lO 


How to get Muscular, 


upon the world’s heart the idea that the King 
of Men was insignificant and frail, not to say 
monstrous, in His anatomy. For such a con- 
ception we have to thank the vile imaginations 
of worthless monks. There is no ground for 
such an idea. Indeed, there are facts concern- 
ing His life which can be explained only on the 
supposition that physically He was a strong 
man.” 

We are interested particularly, however, in 
noting how this fibrous virility characterized 
His mind and will no less than His body. He 
had a muscular brain. He stood out in this 
in marked contrast to the Pharisees and Scribes, 
and, indeed, to most men of His time. The 
minds of those around Him were flimsy. They 
thought childish thoughts. They moved in the 
old rut of orthodox tradition. They were 
steeped in human creeds. They were incapable 
of original work. They swallowed dogmas 
whole, and produced only dreary platitudes. 
They were so besotted in their stagnation that 


Strength. 


1 1 

they preferred their old falsehoods to new 
truth. Indeed, they hated truth — they could 
not receive it. They were so warped with 
prejudice that they loved the darkness of their 
traditional creed, and bitterly antagonized any 
new discovery. Such were the minds of the 
men among whom Jesus worked. Their minds 
were flabby, like clams encrusted in impervious 
• shells — unable to advance, unable to under- 
stand new ideas. 

There was an infinite difference between such 
minds and the mind of Jesus. The multitudes 
at once felt the difference. They marvelled 
at His doctrine, for He taught them as one hav- 
ing authority and not as the scribes.’' His 
mind was muscular — well-knit, fibrous, vitalized 
with strength. He did not teach them tradi- 
tion, He taught them truth. He did not deal 
with dead dogmas. He dealt with living reality. 
His intellect was not imprisoned in an artificial 
theory. It was out in the Infinite Universe, 
face to face with the final mystery. It did not 


12 


How to get Muscular. 


waste its time juggling with theological subtle- 
ties and theories, it grappled immediately with 
the great problems of Being. That is the test 
and evidence of a muscular brain. A strong 
intellect does not continue repeating by rote 
the dogmas of a dead and ignorant past. A 
strong intellect leaves the dead past to bury its 
own dead systems of thought, and for itself in 
the new light of living discoveries it feels the 
pulse of the universe. That was what Jesus 
did. He taught not what He had been told by 
men, but what He had Himself discovered in 
God. -He was not a mere repeater. He was 
an investigator. He taught what was called 
heresy, but He taught truth. His brain was 
not flimsy, it was muscular ; and no more com- 
plete testimony could be desired to the vigor 
of His mind than the way in which the fossil- 
ized bigots hated the truth which He taught. 
It is the highest compliment that can be paid 
to a thinker when such men call him ‘‘ a blas- 
phemer.^' 


Strength. 


13 


But not only was the intellect of Jesus filled 
with strength ; His will also was grandly mus- 
cular. It was marked by tenacity of purpose, 
fixedness of resolution, and irresistible power 
of action. It fills me with wonder and awe. I 
worship it, convinced that it was Divine. Think 
what it resisted, what temptations it overcame, 
what allurements it defied, what oppositions it 
cut through. Calmly, without a tremor of 
hesitation, in silence, in loneliness, in darkness, 
in bitter grief, it marched to the horror of 
Golgotha. It had in it the strength of eternity. 
It was the mightiest essence that ever moved 
upon the world. As I look at it and see what 
it did among Pharisees and on the mountain, 
in the city and before the judgment-seat of 
Pilate, through the agony and along the way 
to Calvary, I say, Truly this was the Son of 
God.’^ 

I may not spend time in analyzing further. 
The same commanding strength throbbed 
through every part of the nature of Jesus 


14 How to get Muscular. 

Christ. In mind and will, and heart and soul 
we discern that fibrous quality which we call 
muscularity, and which is one of the few things 
that our age reverences. At the same time in 
Him we see this strength permeated and shaped 
by character. The muscularity is filled with 
manhood. A strong man,’^ that which our 
generation in a vague and ignorant way wor- 
ships and which it loves, that is here held up 
before it. Here is what men regard as noble 
and desirable ! Here is a development ! Here 
is a complete result. Here is a strong man.’’ 
Here are unequalled achievements. Here is a 
mind that discovered and proclaimed truths 
which eighteen centuries have not fathomed, 
and which contain the best and only solutions 
for the problems and difficulties of to-day. 
Here is a will that overcame temptation, and 
mastered the world, and remained steadfast 
and unshaken in death. Match me these 
achievements. You admire strength ! Turn 
your eye upon this life. What do you think 


Strength. 


15 


of it ? The Church for eighteen hundred years 
has told us that this is the life by which we are 
to be saved ; that this strong man '' is the 
conqueror from Edom/' the captain of sal- 
vation and that ‘‘to as many as receive Him, 
to them gives He power to become the sons of 
God, even to those who believe on His name." 

Let us not develop ourselves one-sidedly and 
only in one direction. Let us make our de- 
velopment an all-round development. Let us 
carry our athletics into the spheres of mind 
and will, as well as body. Of course we desire 
physical development. I feel a great enthusi- 
asm for large and hard muscles. I think the 
Indian club is one of God's ministers to this 
generation. A gymnasium has more of God 
in it than a convent. Make your shoulders as 
broad as possible. If you can hope for a 
thirty-six inch chest, do not be satisfied with 
one measuring thirty-two inches. The addi- 
tional four inches will add to your happiness 
and usefulness. But never forget that there is 


1 6 How to get Muscular. 

more of you than flesh and blood. Remember 
that while the body is an essential part, it is 
not the only nor the noblest part. There are 
other natures in you grander and more wonder- 
ful which ought not to be neglected. The 
brain is worth more than the biceps ; the will 
is more precious than the fore-arm. Our am- 
bition should be not merely to be strong, but 
to be strong men — to have muscular intellects 
and broad-shouldered wills. I like a mind that 
has a tremendous grip, that can carry a large 
load, and make a long journey, and not give 
out before the first mile is covered. I like a 
mind that can sometimes do rapid work, and, 
when need arises, can spurt a^ hundred-yard 
dash in ten seconds. I would rather be able to 
leap mentally to the height of a great concep- 
tion or thought, than to leap physically six 
feet into the air. 

Then, too, what a grand thing it is to have a 
will whose knees are not weak, and whose back- 
bone is not made of pulp ; a will which can 


Strength, 


17 


put its foot down and say “ Yes ! or No ! ” 
a will that can wade, if need be, across weary 
sands, and breast torrents, and climb over 
mountains. I would rather have a will that 
could wrestle like Jacob’s, and resolve like 
Napoleon’s, and persevere like Washington’s, 
than to be able to lift a thousand pounds or to 
swim across the English Channel. 

Do there not open before us vistas of man- 
hood when we study the problem of devel- 
opment? Are these not fascinating possibil- 
ities? Is not this the most interesting of all 
subjects? Now this is what is meant by 
following Jesus. It is not to retire from this 
world and go out from life. It is to enter 
more largely and abundantly into life. I am 
come,” said Jesus, ‘'that they might have life, 
and that they might have it more abun- 
dantly.” You are invited to develop yourself. 
You are invited to follow “a strong man.” 
Jesus of Nazareth was a great mental and 
spiritual athlete. No one can follow Jesus 


1 8 How to get Muscular. 

by sitting in a pew and singing, “ Oh ! to be 
nothing.” We have to stand on our feet, to 
gird up our loins, to wrestle, to run, to lift a 
larger weight to-morrow than we carried yester- 
day, to make a longer journey, to speed more 
rapidly around the track. Following Jesus is 
all-round athletics, and the man who is really 
following the Master is growing more and more 
like Him every day ; broader-shouldered in 
mind, deeper-chested in will, step by step be- 
coming a strong man,” advancing toward the 
attainment of the fulness of the stature of the 
sons of God. 

This should be our aim, a complete develop- 
ment, a manhood permeated with strength, a 
strength controlled by manhood. Muscularity 
will then characterize every part of our nature ; 
fibrous virility will knit together the loins of 
the intellect ; sinews and thews will build them- 
selves around the will. 


II. 


EXERCISE. 


“ Keep all the commandments that ye may be strong.” 

— Deut. xi. 8. 


Exercise, 


21 


EXERCISE. 

Notwithstanding all its complexities life 
is after all a very simple thing. We deal with 
certainties. Fire always burns, frost always 
bites, twice two is always four, ten pounds of 
force never does twenty pounds of work. The 
same result may always be predicted from the 
same conditions. And no result will come if 
the conditions are not arranged. If the water 
is not hot, the egg will not cook. If the seed 
is not sown, it will bear no harvest. If the 
horse is not fed, he cannot pull. If we wish to 
obtain some result, there are certain things we 
must do. All things move according to law, 
along very definite paths. If, therefore, an end 
is desired, the path must be discovered over 
which forces will move toward that end, and 
that path must be laid out. If this be done, 
the result will follow. If it be not done, the 


22 


How to get Muscular. 


result will not follow. It is vain to expect an 
effect without a cause, or to hope for any issue 
unless the essential conditions have been ob- 
served. Such is our world, and so I say that 
life in such a world is very simple. It becomes 
entirely a question of arrangement or observ- 
ance. Do I want corn ? I must plant, and I 
must plant a particular sort of seed. It will 
not do to plant anything. I will not get corn 
if I plant peas. The world is very exacting. 
She will give me plenty of corn, but only on 
one condition, I must plant corn. Do I desire 
to become a scholar ? Then, too, I must ob- 
serve certain conditions. It is not enough that 
I have a high ideal of scholarship, it is not 
enough that I desire to become learned. I 
might sit and reverence such an ideal, and 
cherish such desires forever without obtaining 
the result. I must observe some very definite 
conditions. I must study, I must work. It is 
very simple, the whole secret is obedience ; if 
I obey, if I observe the conditions, the result 


Exercise. 


23 


follows. If I kindle the fire, the house is 
warmed ; if I water the plant, it will grow. 

We desire to become strong. Here is a 
definite aim and purpose. How may it be at- 
tained ? How can I get strong? It is the 
same old simple problem. Certain conditions 
must be arranged and observed, and the result 
will follow. If I obey these regulations the 
wished-for issue will come. As Moses ex- 
pressed it — ‘‘ Keep all the commandments, that 
thou mayst be strong.’' It becomes simply a 
question as to what these conditions are. Dis- 
cover them and observe them, and the result is 
secure. 

In the brief inquiry which I shall make, it is 
not physical strength solely or principally 
that I shall have in view. Strength of mind 
and strength of will seem to me vastly more 
important than mere strength of body, and it 
is with them that I am mainly concerned. We 
shall find, however, that here as always the 
Physical is a parable of the Spiritual ; and that 


24 How to get Muscular, 

it suggests and reveals the secrets which we 
desire to know. Our question is — How can I 
get strong? What must I do ? What condi- 
tions must I observe ? What commandments 
must I keep ? The first of these conditions 
which I would note is exercise. Exercise is 
essential. No man ever built up a good muscle 
without exercise. A splendid biceps never 
came to a man who merely sat down and 
prayed for it. A full rounded chest is the 
result not of meditation, or aspiration, or wor- 
ship alone. It never comes without work. 
Nothing can take the place of exercise. Medi- 
cine cannot, electricity cannot. No one even 
pretends to have invented a pill which will 
make men broad-shouldered. The man who 
desires a substantial grip must make the ac- 
quaintance of the dumb-bell. Indian clubs are 
the only seeds which produce a crop of well- 
knit, flexible shoulder-caps. Another man’s 
exercising will not do me any good. I might 
hire a man to train for me. His putting up 


Exercise. 


25 


weights would not enlarge my arm. All this is 
simple and plain enough in physical matters ; 
and yet even in this sphere it is worth our 
thoughtful consideration. As a people we do 
not exercise enough. Sometimes I almost 
wish that our religion enjoined upon its pro- 
fessors the making of pilgrimages. Every 
human being ought in his life to walk as far 
as at least once around the world, to climb as 
high as its loftiest mountain, and to swim as 
far as the width of its widest river. Posterity 
would thank us if we would do our duty in this 
matter. Extravagance in shoe-leather is the 
strictest economy. Fairmount Park is a greater 
blessing to this generation than even the store- 
windows on Chestnut Street. If it were vis- 
ited by our citizens as frequently as their 
smaller and less beautiful parks are visited by 
the inhabitants of European cities, it would do 
a work invaluable and measureless. 

Applying these well-known truths and prin- 
ciples to spiritual spheres, we repeat, strength 


26 How to get Muscular. 

of mind and will can be secured only by exer- 
cise. Work alone will build up muscularity of 
brain and character. 

The essence of exercise is the overcoming of 
resistance ; this is done in two ways. The 
muscle is used to lift some external weight, or 
the body itself is made the weight and the 
muscle is made to lift that. In either case the 
muscle is set over against the attraction of 
gravity and compelled to pull in opposition to 
it. In a word, exercise is a tug-of-war between 
the world and the individual. The apparatus 
may vary widely, but always it will be found 
that there is a rope with the earth at one end 
and the man on the other. They pull against 
each other, and the man gets his exercise by 
overcoming the resistance which the earth 
offers to his movement. A gymnasium is 
simply a room in which by ingenious arrange- 
ments the earth and the man are placed in 
opposition to each other. 

Man's mind and will find plenty of resistance 


Exercise. 


27 


in the world. It is indeed a great mental and 
moral gymnasium. It is prepared exactly to 
afford men that exercise which is essential for 
their development and strength. When we 
analyze the conditions we find that there is, 
so to speak, a rope ; the man’s mind or will is 
at one end, the world is at the other. The 
man’s part is to pull against the world. He 
must make a weight go up while the world 
tries to drag it down. In this way he gets the 

necessary exercise. A problem is, so to speak, 

« 

a mental chest-weight. We can solve it only 
as we pull on the rope. No problem solves 
itself. The simplest example in addition must 
be worked out by the child. The answer does 
not come until he compels it to. He has to 
pull on the rope if he would find the sum. The 
cube root of any quantity does not come out 
and show itself to us of its own accord. It 
lies away down, hidden and unknown, and we 
have to tug very hard to bring it up from its 
concealment. So of every problem, the solution 


28 How to get Muscular, 

is like the weight at the other end of the rope. 
We have to overcome resistance to get the an- 
swer. Sometimes the weight to be lifted is 
ourselves. The world by its attraction of gravi- 
tation lays hold upon our lower nature. It 
pulls us downward. We incline toward evil. 
Here is exercise for the will. We must lift 
ourselves up in spite of the downward drawing 
of the earth. Here the struggle begins. We 
resolve to do good, immediately evil is present 

with us. We pull, the world pulls at the same 

* 

time. We find we are very heavy. It is ex- 
actly like a boy trying to climb up on a bar. 
The earth pulls him down, he pulls himself up. 
It is a question whether the earth will master 
him, or he the earth. This is our great conflict, 
shall we lift ourselves up ? Or shall the world 
drag us down ? We are confronted with oppo- 
sition ; we are compelled to overcome resist- 
ance. This affords abundant exercise. 

We are placed in a great mental and moral 
gymnasium, wherein are all manner of appa- 


Exercise, 


29 


ratus. All sorts of problems confront our 
minds : practical problems relating to our busi- 
ness and our daily bread ; political problems 
relating to our social system, our government, 
methods and policies of administration ; per- 
sonal problems ; speculative problems ; religious 
problems. Weights of all sizes are here. Lift- 
ing these weights is the exercise that will bring 
development and strength to the mind. Here, 
too, are innumerable exercises for the will. 
Every variety of resistance presents itself in 
the world and must be overcome. There is the 
resistance arising from opposing interests, the 
resistance arising from general conditions, the 
resistance arising from evil. The most ingeni- 
ously constructed apparatus in a physical gym- 
nasium are not so complete or numerous. The 
will is encircled with struggles. It pulls against 
the world in all ways. It ought to develop 
broad shoulders, a huge biceps, and a grip like 
steel. 

If we desire to become strong we must take 


30 How to get Muscular. 

advantage of these arrangements and appliances. 
We must solve problems, and grapple with dif- 
ficulties. There is no other way to build up 
muscle. 

In thus exercising in this gymnasium we 
must be careful not to make mistakes. Very 
often I have seen an ignorant, thoughtless man 
come into a gymnasium and begin unwisely, 
and do himself only injury. I have seen little, 
undeveloped boys try to put up very heavy 
dumb-bells. I have seen a man with very small 
arms spend all of his time on the running-track. 
He needed development in another direction. 
I have seen men break their arms by experi- 
menting on the trapeze. Injudicious exercise 
will not make us strong. 

I. The exercise needs to be gradual. Do 
not try the hardest things first. Lifting ’one 
pound fits us to lift two. There are men who 
fly at the highest problems. They do not seem 
to understand that the mind needs training 
and discipline before it will be able to lift the 


Exercise. 


31 


heaviest weights. It is not well to try to walk 
fifty miles the first time we stand on our feet. 
As a rule, we all are too eager to try the hun- 
dred-pound dumb-bells. We take hold of un- 
solvable problems, not content to exercise our- 
selves with those simple ones which we are 
fitted to handle. The will too should be ex- 
ercised gradually. God sets before it first of all 
the simplest exercise. It is not confronted 
with the whole big world and expected at first 
to lift that. Such an achievement would be 
impossible. God gives the will a task which it 
can perform. He says to the man, Give me 
thy heart.” The will tries to lift the heart up to 
God ; then the earth draws the heart downward, 
and the will has to struggle against the earth. 
But this is something which the will can do : it 
can choose, it can decide. It overcomes the 
world in a little matter first, and so develops 
strength to overcome it in greater matters here- 
after. It is only as the exercise is gradual that 
it will make us strong. 


32 How to get Muscular. 

2. Then, too, it needs to be selective. Each 
man is strongest in some particular direction. 
Every one has his forte. In another direction 
he will be weak. He needs development on 
his weak side. Instructors in gymnasiums to- 
day study individuals. They examine and an- 
alyze a man and prescribe the exercise he espe- 
cially needs. back and arms may require 

development, he is put to work on the weights. 

B’s arms maybe massive and his legs almost 
invisible, the running-track is the place for him. 
The exercise must be selective and must de- 
velop the undeveloped parts and powers. If 
we were dealing with a giraffe it would be fool- 
ish to arrange movements to enlarge the neck. 
The giraffe does not need development in that 
direction. A donkey’s ears do not require spe- 
cial attention ; no enlargement is desirable. 
The peacock’s tail is not a weak point demand- 
ing encouragement. With some the tongue 
does not need any special exercise. It is suf- 
ficiently muscular. It is not suffering from any 


Exercise. 


33 


under-development. It is very much stronger 
than the prudence or the good nature. These 
latter may be the weak points which need to 
be strengthened by exercise. 

With regard to the mind, it might be the mem- 
ory that needed training, or it might be the logical 
faculty, or it might be the perceptive powers. In 
either case the exercise should be selected with a 
view to the needs in order that the undeveloped 
part might be developed. So, too, of the will, 
it might be weak in judgment, or in decision, or 
in resolution. It might require the exercise of 
responsibility, or of opposition, or of adversity. 

In His dealings with human beings the All- 
wise Spirit orders the experiences, and arranges 
the changes for a life with selective care. The 
object is to strengthen by exercise the unde- 
veloped powers. Have we seen it in’ our own 
history ? We have been in a great gymnasium, 
and the Master has given us now the chest- 
weight and now the rings. At one time we 
have been compelled to carry burdens, and at 


34 


How to get Muscular. 

another to lift ourselves. The aim has been to 
overcome weakness, that the child of God 
might be thoroughly furnished unto every good 
work.’' And while undoubtedly the experience 
was often very trying and we went heavily in 
grief and bitterness, is it not true that the expe- 
rience was most beneficial and greatly needed ? 
And are we not to-day glad for the develop- 
ment which has come out of the adversity in 
which we were then exercised ? 

3. We see, therefore, that this exercise must 
be varied. No point perhaps calls for more 
emphasis than this. The development which 
results from one single movement continually 
repeated is only a deformity. A man who has 
nothing but an arm is a monstrosity. There 
are more than five hundred muscles in the hu- 
man body ; the exercise which makes a strong 
man " must be a varied exercise, it must bring 
every one of these five hundred muscles into 
play. Manhood should not be developed hem- 
ispherically or in sections. The arms are not 


Exercise. 


35 


enlarged first and then, subsequently, the back 
attended to. All must work and grow together. 
The tree does not first build fibre and then 
afterward weave bark. 

Unfortunately our age is strongly specializing 
in its influence. It employs only one faculty 
in a man. It keeps him, for example, working 
in a coal-mine, or watching a loom in a factory, 
or driving a street-car. The particular faculty 
which is used thus continually in his daily em- 
ployment increases abnormally, but at the same 
time his other faculties shrink through disuse 
and become atrophied. He becomes a mon- 
strosity, having one muscle enormous and hard, 
while his other muscles are almost palsied. 
Nothing is more belittling to human nature 
than narrowness of exercise. Here is a man 
who never reads anything but newspapers ; he 
gets what may be called a newspaper brain.” 
Here is a man whose mind works only along 
business lines ; in reverence, in refinement, in 
knowledge, in love for art, and indeed in all 


36 How to get Muscular. 

the higher, nobler faculties, he becomes with- 
ered, a pitiable deformity. The world compels 
us all to work, we all have to take exercise. 
The great trouble is that the work is not varied. 
Exercise which brings into play only one fac- 
ulty will not make a strong man,’' it will make 
only a one-sided deformity. Most of us are 
specialists, little creatures having one dispro- 
portionately large muscle. A dwarf with with- 
ered limbs and having a monstrous biceps might 
stand as the type of multitudes to-day. 

What is needed to make strong men is varied 
exercise. Do not let your specialty swallow 
you up. If in the world you are all the while 
exercising your cunning and shrewdness, take 
time to exercise your taste for literature, your 
love for art, your desire for music. Above all, 
take time to exercise your faculty of reverence 
for Truth. What we see to-day is men de- 
veloping their meaner powers with greatest 
eagerness, their greed, their selfishness, their 
•coarseness, their deceitfulness; these grow very 


Exercise. 


37 

strong in the battle for existence. But the 
nobler powers which inhere in manhood, the 
powers seen in such men as Shakespeare, and 
Wordsworth, and Tennyson, these are neg- 
lected, they wither as a muscle withers when 
never used. What is the result ? A curious 
creature having enormous cunning and not the 
least refinement, great shrewdness and no par- 
ticle of reverence. As we gaze upon such indi- 
viduals we find the old question rising to our 
lips : What shall it profit a man though he 

gain the whole world and lose his own soul?’^ 
What must life be to the man whose better 
powers have all become atrophied and who is 
conscious only of the meanest faculties of his 
nature? Varied exercise, that is what is needed 
to-day. And there are the most abundant op- 
portunities for it. I am impressed with the 
variety of exercise which the universe provides. 
I have said it is a great gymnasium. In it 
there are contrivances which will give exercise 
to every power of man's mind. Loveliest land- 


38 How to get Muscular. 

\ 

scapes appeal to man’s sense of beauty ; the 
smiling valley encircled with silent mountains, 
the green meadow brilliant with flowers, the 
crystal stream over which great trees spread 
their branches, floating clouds, whispering 
winds, billowing oceans, rippling lakes ; do not 
all these give exercise to man’s aesthetic pow- 
ers? Do they not develop his refined and 
artistic nature ? And with its sublime sun- 
rises and sunsets, its grandly solemn nights, 
its hosts of stars, its silent mystery, is it not 
calling the reverence of the soul into play ? 
Let us vary the exercise. Why should cunning 
be the only power developed ? Let us come 
out into the midnight and learn to worship. 
Let us grow in reverence by gazing upon the 
splendid mystery about us. Varied exercise 
will develop complete manhood. 

4. Lastly, this exercise needs to be regular. 
Spasmodic exercise never developed strength. 
I knew a man who came about once in six 
weeks to the gymnasium, and tried in that one 


Exercise. 


39 


visit to take exercise enough for all the rest of 
the time. He worked on every machine and 
used every apparatus. The result was not a 
strong man/' but an exhausted man. Spas- 
modic exertion never developed a brain. Not 
infrequently in college, men are found who idle 
all through the course, and work inhumanly 
at examination seasons. Nothing is more use- 
less and hardly anything is more injurious. 
The men of strong intellects have built up their 
strength by regular exercise. Every day some 
weight was lifted, some power used, some 
problem pondered. Napoleon had a passion 
for mental activity. He endeavored to learn 
some new truth every day. As a minister of 
the Gospel I feel that I have a mission to men’s 
minds. A man cannot be saved unless he is 
saved all round. The mind needs saving, and 
here too Faith without works is dead.” Reg- 
ular mental exercise will make the brain mus- 
cular, and win for it the strength so much to 
be desired. Strength of will, too, is the result 


40 


How to get Muscular, 


not of spasmodic but of regular activity. We 
do not meet the adversary now and then in 
pitched battles, and overcome the world by 
some special and widely separated efforts. It 
is a daily and an hourly struggle, and only as 
we are ever engaged in it do we win. To come 
to church once a month, to pray once a week, 
to read the Word now and then, to try to do 
right only during Lent, all this is spasmodic. 
It never made a will muscular. The strength 
of the will of Jesus was built up by regular 
exercise, taken every day. And many of His 
parables illustrate and emphasize the necessity 
of this feature. It is the man who is watch- 
ful who is ready. It is the man who perse- 
veres who prevails. It is the man who endures 
who is saved. Every day let us make the 
effort, every day let us open our hearts and 
give them anew and more completely to God. 
Every day let us resist the allurement. Every 
day let us lift ourselves higher in spite of 
the world. Every day let us reach for a 


Exercise, 


41 


truer manhood, and try to come nearer to 
the Man of Men. We will find thus that reg- 
ular exercise in which our wills will become 
strong. 





% 


III. 

REST AND FOOD. 


V 


“They sat down, .... and did eat.'* 

— Sr. Mark vi. 40, 42. 


Rest and Food. 


45 


REST AND FOOD. 

In the sixth chapter of St. Mark's Gospel 
we read of a multitude who were exhausted, 
and who needed to have their strength renewed. 
Under the direction of Jesus they did two 
things, they sat down," and they did eat." 
The scene suggests two answers to the ques- 
tion which we have proposed to ourselves. 

How to get strong." There are two things 
which will help to increase and assure our 
strength, rest and food. We, like this multi- 
tude, need to sit down, and also to eat. 

We cannot get strong without rest. In my 
last address I emphasized the importance of 
exercise, observing that without it muscle could 
not be developed. In this address I desire to 
emphasize the importance of rest, for without 
rest vitality and vigor cannot be built up. We 
live in an age characterized by contradictions. 


46 How to get Muscular. 

On the one hand, there are those in it who do 
not take enough exercise. On the other hand, 
there are those who do not take enough rest. 
Our generation seems made up of those who 
loaf, and those who overwork ; those who do 
nothing, and those who do too much. It is an 
age of extremes. Some have muscles withered 
through disuse, and others have muscles strained 
and broken from over-taxing. The bodies of 
some are, so to speak, festering from stagnation. 
The bodies of others are being consumed by 
raging fires. The one-half are drones, and the 
other half are drudges. The one class needs 
to have the Gospel of Work preached to them. 
The other class needs to hear the Gospel of 
Rest. Some are weak through inactivity, and 
some are weak through over-exertion. We 
hardly realize how large a class this latter class 
is. Our country and generation suffer from 
this malady. There is undoubtedly something 
in our climate stimulating to the nervous sys- 
tem. One of the early settlers in New England 


Rest and Food. 


47 


declared that a breath of Boston air was equal 
to a draught of old English ale. Our atmos- 
phere is exhilarating. Its clear days, when they 
occur, are dazzlingly clear. There is a keenness 
about them which seems to act immediately 
upon the nerves. In addition to this, the con- 
ditions of our life to-day are more exacting 
than ever before. Our civilization is all stress 
and strain. Individual competition has been 
pushed to the bursting point. The safety-valve 
has been shut, and oil has been poured upon 
the fires. Our system is like a great task-mas- 
ter, early every morning it summons men to 
labor by the strident blasts of the steam-whistle ; 
and all day long it drives them to their tasks. 
Never in any preceding age was man com- 
pelled to wrestle with such anxieties, or carry 
such a burden of cares, or struggle with such 
competitions as to-day. It is a battle for 
existence fought with all the improved appli- 
ances of modern slaughter and warfare. Under 
the stress of such conditions the individual 


48 How to get Muscular 

rushes unreasonably around, and does the work 
of two. He is driven by a remorseless task- 
master. Two things thus combine to over-tax 
men to-day. The climate, by an inward spur, 
stimulates them to over-exertion ; and our civ- 
ilization, by its outward compulsions, lashes 
them to overwork. The old car of Juggernaut 
used to be dragged along the road, and pious 
believers cast themselves before it and were 
crushed into dust. But to-day the car of civil- 
ization crushes lives a great deal more complete- 
ly and sadly. The breakdowns, so amazingly 
frequent, are living deaths. The momentary 
pains of a physical destruction are not to be 
compared to the continued and exquisite tor- 
tures, which a life suffers when crushed by over- 
work. This is not something exceptional or 
unknown. It is something to be seen on every 
hand, something of daily occurrence. We are 
used to it. We hardly think anything of it. 
Now in business, now in professional life, now 
in the office, now in the counting-room, now in 


Rest and Food. 


49 


the pulpit, the man reels and falls. We hardly 
take note of it. We hardly look up. Oh,” 
we say, another victim of over-v/ork ! The 
brain, I suppose, gave way.” We know that we 
are living unnatural lives. We know that hu- 
man nature was never intended to endure such 
a strain. We go on, however, with our eyes 
shut, recklessly resigned to what we regard as 
unchangeable necessity. It is sad the way in 
which the age abuses good workmen. If they 
are willing and capable, they are crowded and 
expected to do triple duty, but not to receive 
triple salary ; and so it is very frequently the 
best men who break down. It is an age which 
needs to have the Gospel of Rest preached to 
it. And I bring my message, saying to some, 
your strength is to sit still.” If you would 
get strong, the first thing which you must do 
is to sit down.” I, of course, am not speak- 
ing to every one. There are those who do 
not need any such exhortation. Especially in 
church life and fields, there are those who are 


50 How to get Muscular, 

not suffering from overwork. But while they 
need to be called to activity, there are others 
who need to be summoned to rest. 

Over-training never built up a strong constitu- 
tion. I have seen many who hurt their hearts by 
unduly enlarging their muscles. Not a few ex- 
ercise themselves into their graves. Sometimes 
a man increases his biceps at the expense of 
his system ; and ends by having a strong arm 
but a weak heart. There are two sorts of 
strength : there is the special strength of some 
one muscle or set of muscles ; and there is the 
general strength of the system. The last is 
what we call the constitution, and is the more 
important of the two. It is better to have a 
strong constitution than a strong little finger. 
If developing the latter be carried to an ex- 
treme it will injure the former. There is a 
sense in which it is true that exercise strength- 
ens the particular muscles, while rest strength- 
ens the general system. Often our strength 
is to sit still,” for while we are sitting still our 


Rest and Food, 


51 


system grows and builds itself up. Through 
the hours of rest the constitution of a man fills 
itself with vitality. After a night’s sleep the 
arm is not any larger, but the general vigor is 
greatly increased. A vacation may not add to 
my grip, but it adds immeasurably to my consti- 
tutional strength. With regard to the mind we 
will find these truths most pertinent. Rest might 
not increase the mind’s penetration so much, but 
it does increase amazingly the mind’s grasp of 
a whole subject. It makes the mind stronger 
all round. The brain takes a broader outlook, 
views things in their varied relationships more 
completely, and has a vastly greater general 
strength after a season of repose. Hammerton, 
in his book on The Intellectual Life,” says 
that a year spent in rest, in which the brain 
might have opportunity to expand, would be of 
great service to the"mental life, and instead of be- 
ing time thrown away, would be time profitably 
employed for increasing strength. This at least 
is certain, the man who desires to get strong 


52 How to get Muscular. 

mentally must rest as well as exercise. Intel- 
lectually he, like the men in the scene before 
us, must sit down. I need not pause to apply 
this truth to the will of man. For that, also, 
rest is necessary. The bow needs to be un- 
strung if it is to retain its elasticity ; kept al- 
ways bent, it loses its power to rebound. There 
is a disease known as lock-jaw, in which the 
teeth close convulsively and never open. They 
shut with vise-like power, but it is the grip not 
of life, but of death. Such it seems to me is 
the result when the will is unceasingly exerted. 
It may acquire a tremendous closing power, 
but this is a sort of lock-jaw spasm, it is disease 
rather than health ; it is not the strength of 
life, but the energy of death. The will needs 
to sit down now and again, it cannot become 
strong without rest. 

So much, then, I say about the first condi- 
tion suggested by the scene in St. Mark’s 
Gospel. I turn now to observe the second 
condition. Man cannot get strong without 


Rest and Food. 


53 


food. The multitude sat down, and did eat!' 
Thus they renewed their vigor. It is worth 
our while to observe that, under the direction 
of Jesus, the multitude sat down while they ate. 
They rested while they partook of food. The 
Master taught men to observe hygienic condi- 
tions and to obey physiological laws. We can 
easily imagine how five thousand men would 
be fed to-day. There would be a long counter 
too high to be comfortable and too low to be 
convenient. It would be covered with a variety 
of indigestible compounds, from the wrought- 
iron sandwich to the sole-leather pie. A rail- 
road train would come sweeping up to the 
spot, and a chorus of conductors would vo- 
ciferate, Five minutes for refreshments ! A 
gong would thunder and the crowd would rush 
pell-mell, making a wild descent upon the 
lunch-counter. There they would stand most 
uneasily, with rolling eyes and alert ears, and 
while locomotives snorted and bells clanged, 
while the air was full of smoke and unpleasant- 


54 How to get Muscular. 

ness, they would nervously bite off great bulks 
of indigestion, feeling that each mouthful might 
be their last, and ready all the while to rush 
back to the train. After a few moments the 
conductors would cry All aboard ! and the 
crowd would scramble out in hot haste to the 
cars. This sort of a performance goes on every 
day all over our country ; and, indeed, there 
are hundreds of business men who take their 
lunches after a method almost as bad. They 
snatch their food and rush. Thousands to-day 
eat on the run. It is not surprising that dys- 
pepsia is a national disease, or that so many 
pale, anxious faces are to be seen upon our 
streets. A more effectual method could not 
be devised for making men weak and under- 
mining their health. As contrasted with such 
customs and habits, consider, if you please, the 
way in which Jesus directed the multitude to 
dispose themselves while He fed them. He 
commanded them {i, e.y His disciples) to make 
them all sit down by companies upon the green 


Rest and Food. 


55 


grass, and they sat down.” It is a beautiful 
picture, orderly, quiet, restful. And I com- 
mend it to all as containing a valuable sugges- 
tion as to how to get strong. If you want to 
get strong you will need to follow the method 
prescribed by Jesus. Do not take your meals 
on the run. If you have never considered the 
matter before, consider it now seriously, I beg 
of you. You will thank me in future years for 
forcing it upon your attention. Treat yourself 
rationally as Christ wishes you to treat your- 
self. Form good habits in this matter, for it is 
largely a question of habit ; it is of the highest 
importance. These principles lie at the centre 
and foundation of life. Upon them depend 
health, strength, and happiness. Take time for 
the essential things. Sit down — and eat. 

But not to dwell upon this thought, I wish 
to consider the truth that food is necessary for 
strength. This is a natural necessity. We are 
constructed on this plan. Our organism is an 
engine, and it can run only when there is fuel 


56 How to get Muscular. 

in the furnace. There are, as we all know, 
various sorts of fuel. There are coal, and wood, 
and peat, and oil, and gas. Each has its own 
qualities. The question of foods is being re- 
duced to a science. Chemical analysis sepa- 
rates and classifies the various foods according 
to the various elements which they contain and 
according to the various effects which they pro- 
duce. There are starch foods, and sugar foods, 
and phosphorous foods. There are foods which 
produce fat, there are foods which produce 
bone, foods which produce muscle, foods which 
produce brain. The nourishing quality of foods 
varies amazingly. The potential of some is 
very small. They may be sweet and agreeable, 
but they will not support life. They are flum- 
mery rather than food. For example, water- 
melon would not be substantial enough for a 
steady diet. Whipped cream is delicious, but 
no one can live on it. Then, too, foods differ 
in their digestibility. Some are digested in 
one hour, and some hardly in four. The in- 


Rest and Food. 


57 


valid can take beef-tea or milk; a very frail 
digestion can assimilate them. But even a 
strong man might well hesitate before ventur- 
ing to taste the young lady's first loaf of bread. 

« 

This whole question is a most interesting one, 
and is being recognized more and more as of 
great importance. The plumage of birds has 
been changed in color by alterations in their 
food. These well-established facts apply to 
human life. The foot-ball teams and boat 
crews at colleges have a particularly prescribed 
bill of fare. It is an expensive and carefully 
prepared regimen. It is well understood that 
good results depend upon the food taken. The 
man who would get strong must pay attention 
to this matter. 

Wc are ready now, I think, to apply these 
general principles to the question of spiritual 
strength. The mind cannot get strong without 
food, and a great deal depends upon the kind 
of food taken. There are mental foods which 
make fat, and there are mental foods that make 


58 How to get Muscular. 

muscle. The amount of nourishment con- 
tained in the various kinds differs greatly. 
There is the light novel which is like whipped 
cream. It is pleasant reading undoubtedly, but 
it is not beneficial. Taken as a steady diet it 
is ruinous. The mind fed solely on it becomes 
utterly strengthless and pitiably flimsy. There 
are multitudes to-day whose minds were never 
fed on anything stronger than summer fiction. 
This is good as a dessert, as the last course to 
a substantial meal. But, alas ! for the mental 
life of any one who finds in such reading the 
sole staple of intellectual nourishment. Re- 
garding the mind as an organism, there are 
certain things which we must give it to eat if 
we would make it strong. The staple of the 
mind’s food is of course truth. This is what 
the mind hungers for. It is all the while 
searching for truth. In all its explorations, in 
all its activities, in all its sciences, and philoso- 
phies, and arts, it is reaching after truth. How 
it rejoices when it discovers any new truth or 


Rest a7id Food, 


59 


fact. Such a discovery marks an epoch in its 
history. It feasts on that truth as a hungry 
man on bread. See, too, how strong it be- 
comes after eating this food. How amazingly 
the mind of man increased in power after the 
discovery made by Sir Isaac Newton. Man's 
intellect fed on the law of gravitation ; it grew ; 
it ceased to be a child’s intellect ; it stood 
up and looked abroad. It outgrew its old 
foolish conceptions of the universe. It took 
grander views, it grasped larger ideas. It be- 
came strong because it was fed on truth. 
Truth is the word which proceedeth out of the 
mouth of God.” For it man hungers, and only 
as he finds it is he blessed. Ye shall know 
the truth,” said Jesus, and the truth shall 
make you free.” It is amazing in its effects. 
It fills a mind with divine energy. Elijah 
tasted it and went in its strength forty days 
and forty nights. Truth,” the reality around 
you — feed your mind on that. The solemn 
mystery of the universe ; the Infinite and the 


6o How to get Muscular. 

Eternity in which you live and move and have 
your being ; the silence which encircles all ; the 
great laws which roll unceasingly ; the splendid 
panorama of the stars ; the strangeness of your 
little life which moves in the midst of such 
magnificence ; the flow of time ; the endlessness 
which enfolds us, — these are realities, this is 
truth. Feed your mind on that. Do not 
snatch a morsel and hurry on and forget it. 
Sit down and meditate. This is the food of 
the gods ; it is spread profusely before you. Is 
it not a more tempting feast than the petty 
rivalries, and envyings, and false reports, and 
meannesses which the world offers you ? Ho ! 
every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.*’ 
No price is asked for this royal banquet. The 
truth is free for the poorest mind. The sub- 
lime reality spreads itself before you. Will 
you see it, or will you be blind to it ? The 
splendid mystery of life is all around you. 
Will you consider it, or will you ignore it ? 
Here is truth, unchangeable, the same forever. 


Rest and Food, 


6i 


Sit down and eat that and you will become 
strong mentally. 

The food which the will requires is a ptirpose, 
% 

A definite aim and object will give a will the 
strength of an army. The double-minded 
man/’ says the proverb, ‘‘ is unstable in all his 
ways.^’ In such a man the will is fibreless, 
sinewless, nerveless. It has no energy, no 
vitality. It is a starved will. What it needs 
is a definite purpose. Give it that ; and feeding 
on that it will renew its strength, and surprise 
every one by its rapid and complete recupera- 
tion. You have often probably seen such trans- 
formations. A man may have been sitting 
listless and impotent ; suddenly he started up 
and became a factor in society, a positive force 
in the world. The change was caused by a 
purpose. He placed a definite object before 
his will, and his will fed on it and grew strong. 
I advise every young man to have an aim in 
life. The will within you needs it for food. It 
will nourish that will and renew its strength 


62 


How to get Muscular, 


day by day. Then, when you are weary and 
discouraged, you can sit down and take that 
purpose again into your soul, and lo ! you will 
be strong. We cannot starve the inner life any 
more safely than we can starve the outer life. 
If either be left unfed it will suffer and perish. 
We cannot feed the body with spirit food, and 
we cannot feed the spirit with bodily food. 
Man cannot live by bread alone. That which 
satisfies the animal nature is only husks to the 
spirit nature. The inner man can be strong only 
when he is fed with the food which he requires. 

Now I sum up all that can be said, when I 
say that Christ is the food for this inner man. 
He brings to the mind the truth for which it 
hungers. The invisible and undiscoverable 
things of God are manifested in His life and 
character. All of the Eternal Spirit that can 
be expressed in human conditions is expressed 
in Him. He is in Himself a revelation. When 
we see what He was, we see what God is. God 
is an Infinite and Eternal Christ. The last, the 


Rest and Food, 


63 


deepest, the highest truths are expressed in His 
life and conduct and words. He is thus in 
Himself the Truth. If we know how to 

I 

look, we can find in Him the deep things of 
God,” the things which mighty men have de- 
sired to see, the truth for which the mind of 
man has hungered. Intelligently studying 
Him and meditating upon Him, we will gather 
from Him the food by which our mind will be 
strengthened. We will find that for our intel- 
lects, He is ‘‘the bread that came down from 
heaven whereof a man may eat and not die.” 
For the will, too. He brings the essential nour- 
ishment. He fills a man’s will with a great 
purpose, the desire to escape from evil, to over- 
come temptation, and to reach the grand lib- 
erty of a noble manhood. The moment Christ 
touches a life. He sets before it this aim. The 
life’s one ambition is then to become a “ son of 
God,” great, magnanimous, true. The Christ 
brings this food to the will, and the will feed- 
ing on this purpose grows strong. In addition 


64 How to get Muscular. 

to these ministrations and services, Christ im- 
parts Himself to a life in a way which none can 
describe, and which only those who have ex- 
perienced it can understand. He says, ‘^Be- 

0 

cause I live, ye shall live also.'’ He is the 
soul's food in a mystic and wonderful way. 
We take Him unto our hearts and by a hidden 
and mysterious working His strength becomes 
our strength. We live, and yet not we, but the 
Christ who liveth in us. We can do all things 
because He strengtheneth us. The mighty life 
of the vine is in the branch which has been 
grafted on. The power of Christ works within 
and saves us. This is the food by which our 
inner life can be made strong — Christ the mes- 
senger from God, Christ the Incarnation of 
Divinity, Christ the Saviour of the world. If 
we open our hearts to Him we will have the 
Life Eternal within us. Let us pause in the 
midst of our agitations and hurryings. Let us 
take time to meditate in calmness. Let us sit 
down and eat this food and we will be strong. 


t 


IV. 


AIR 


‘‘ The breath of life/' 

— Genesis ii. 7. 


Air. 


67 


AIR. 

In reading the account of man's creation, 
found in the Book of Genesis, we observe that 
at least two great steps are noted and distin- 
guished by the author. First there is the 
formative period, The Lord formed man of 
the dust of the ground." In this period worked 
all those moulding processes which brought 
man's body to its present shape. Then came 
the second step, God breathed into his nos- 
trils the breath of life." This was what may 
be called the inspirational period. God im- 
parted something of His own essence to the 
earthy animal, and the man of dust became a 
living soul." We are interested particularly in 
one truth which this description brings into 
prominence, the important part played by the 
‘‘ breath of life." It was, we may say, the at- 
mosphere, which developed a living soul within 


68 How to get Muscular. 

the human being. What a man becomes de- 
pends upon the air which he breathes. We 
have been considering the practical question, 
How to get strong,'’ and have noted three 
conditions upon which strength depends — ex- 
ercise, rest, and food. To-night I purpose to 
consider a fourth condition, no less essential, 
namely, air. No man can become a living soul 
without the breath of life.” 

The atmosphere which a man breathes exer- 
cises a determining influence upon his health and 
strength. Science has discovered remarkable 
facts about the atmosphere. I should be inter- 
ested to dwell upon what I might call the pro- 
tecting influence of the air. It is like a cushion 
wrapped around the earth defending it from 
many injuries. There are innumerable meteor- 
ites floating in space, masses of matter, prob- 
ably mainly iron. These coming within the 
lines of the earth's attraction are drawn toward 
our planet. If there were no atmosphere around 
our world they would fall upon it with disas- 


A zr. 


69 


trous and devastating violence. Think what 
great havoc would be wrought if a meteor 
should dash itself into the midst of some 
densely populated city. Such calamities are 
prevented by the air. It is a dense medium 
and resists the forward motion of the meteor. 
The friction thus induced develops such heat 
that the meteor is dissipated in a flash of light. 
The atmosphere protects the world from injury. 
What would have been a blow becomes trans- 
formed into a heavenly radiance. In like man- 
ner the atmosphere around a man's life is a 
protection. Without such an atmosphere he 
is exposed to all the blows which the malice 
and inhumanity of the world love to strike. 

Beware of men," said the Eternal Christ to 
His apostles. They will wound on no provo- 
cation, but simply because it is their nature to 
do so. They will hit from behind and from be- 
neath, and alas ! for the unprotected life which 
is exposed to the tender mercies of the selfish 
and the sinful. The best of all protections is 


70 


How to get Muscular. 


an atmosphere. A life that is encircled with 
God’s love dwells ^Gn the secret place of the 
Most High,” abides under the shadow of the 
Almighty.” God hides it secretly in a pavilion 
from the strife of tongues, and from the pride 
of man. There shall no evil befall it, and no 
plague shall come nigh its dwelling. It is se- 
cure, it is hidden with Christ in God. It can 
say, The Lord is on my side, and I do not 
care what man shall do unto me.” Of course, 
around it there will be the pride of man, that 
cold, self-satisfied brutality ; and around it, too, 
will be the strife of tongues, that eternal clatter 
of scandal and gossip which is the very music 
of hell. But though these things encircle it, 
though stones are always flying, nevertheless, 
if it is bathed in an atmosphere of God’s love, 
none of these things will move it, none of these 
things will come nigh it. That atmosphere will 
protect it from every assault ; the blow will be 
dissipated before reaching the heart. Nay, it 
will become a very flash of light. And for that 


Air. 


71 


life the night season will be made beautiful with 
radiant beamings. Instead of being harmed, it 
will be helped by the assault, for God will trans- 
form the intended injury into a blessing. A 
man cannot be strong in this world without 
such an atmosphere. If every arrow shot un- 
kindly was able to reach its mark and rankle ; 
if every blow was able to go home and bruise ; 
if every stone was able to find the heart and 
cut, the man's life would be one excruciating 
torture. It is not a world to be unprotected 
in ; for, in it, even the tender mercies of the 
wicked are cruel. Let us hide our souls in the 
secret and mystery of God's presence, and we 
will not be afraid for the terror by night ; 
nor for the arrow that flieth by day ; nor for 
the pestilence that walketh in darkness ; nor 
for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. 
A thousand may fall at our side, and ten thou- 
sand at our right hand, but it shall not come 
nigh us." 

Another most interesting discovery of science 


72 How to get Muscular, 

is that the atmosphere around the world secures 
for it the light and heat of the sun. What the 
solar energy may be in space we cannot tell. 
We know that, as we ascend lofty mountains, 
we come to the levels of eternal snow and abid- 
ing changeless cold. Where there is no atmos- 
phere, there is no heat. The moon is a frozen, 
icy sepulchre. The same sun shines upon it 
that shines upon our world. Our world is warm 
and full of life, the moon is frigid and dead. 
The sun cannot help a planet unless that planet 
has an atmosphere. The parable is most in- 
structive : the spiritual sun cannot help a soul 
unless that soul has an atmosphere. The same 
truth comes to two lives: in the one, it becomes 
a warming, quickening energy ; that life is filled 
with beauty and song, is covered with countless 
flowers, and bears abundant harvests of fruit. 
The other life remains cold and dead, an icy 
sepulchre. What is the difference ? Simply 
this : the one life has an atmosphere ; the oth- 
er life, like the moon, has none. Heavenly 


Air. 


73 


energies cannot help us, unless the proper air 
encircles our soul. Faith and hope must be 
around us before God's power can warm and 
quicken. Without them the truth does not 
kindle a heart, but lies cold and sterile on a 
dead and icy soul. In this connection, there- 
fore, the law is, — no strong life without proper 
atmosphere. The ministries of heaven are im- 
potent, unless the soul has the necessary air. 

Such truths as these are interesting and in- 
structive ; but there are more central truths on 
which I desire to dwell. We, of course, under- 
stand that the atmosphere is essential for our 
life. We are organisms that breathe. We hard- 
ly realize how large a proportion of our supplies 
comes from the air. Only a fraction of a tree 
is drawn through the roots from the soil. Most 
of it is gathered through the leaves out of the 
air. The forest is not quarried out of the earth, 
it is condensed out of the atmosphere. The 
carbon in its timber came not from the ground, 
but from the air. This same atmosphere, through 


74 How to get Muscular. 

our lungs, supplies elements by which our life 
is sustained and our body built up. A man 
can fast for forty days, but he must breathe all 
the time. He depends more absolutely and in- 
timately upon the air than he does upon food. 
He is continually drawing upon it. 

Playing thus, as it does, such an all-important 
part in the economy of man’s life, it is one of 
the deciding factors in the problem which we 
are considering. The health and strength of a 
man depend upon the character and quality of 
the air which he breathes. Some air is in- 
vigorating, full of ozone, stimulating, reviving. 
To be in it a week is to get a new lease of life. 
It sends richness into the blood, elasticity into 
the muscles, electricity into the nerves. Such 
is the air which sweeps across the broad Atlan- 
tic, toying with the great rollers, kissing a crest 
of spray upon every wave, and stealing the 
secret of a delicious fragrance from the salt 
heart of the great sea. Such, too, is the air 
that nestles upon the mountain-top, and waits 


Air, 


75 


for the rising sun upon the summits of the 
hills. In it are the coolness of the dawn, and 
the sweetness of the silence. It seems to have 
absorbed a sparkle from the stars, and a mys- 
terious depth from its lonely vigils far above 
the world. On the other hand, some air is de- 
bilitating. It is flat and dead and empty. It 
seems as if it had been boiled. To breathe it 
is to become languid and enervated. It ab- 
sorbs and subtracts energy from us instead of 
imparting energy to us. Air on hot, humid 
days often has this peculiarity. In large cities, 
too, it seems to be drained ; its richness is used 
up. Thousands of chimneys pour alloy into 
its pure gold. It is tired out and cannot do 
half work. Then, too, some air is positively 
injurious. It is unwholesome like the air along 
some river beds, which sends chills through the 
frame and kindles fever in the system. It is 
poisonous, tainted it may be with sewer-gas, 
freighted with the effluvia of gutters, filled with 
the germs of various diseases. To breathe it is 


76 How to get Muscular. 

to catch the infection. We might as safely fill 
our mouths with arsenic as our lungs with some 
air. The dangers from the atmosphere are in- 
visible dangers, the pestilence flies on micro- 
scopic wings. We do not understand how 
much poison floats unseen around us. Modern 
science has a great deal to say about germs. 
Modern surgery concerns itself principally with 
these invisible enemies contained in the atmos- 
phere. Every instrument is cleansed and re- 
cleansed before it is used, in order that it mxay 
be freed from the pollutions which the air has 
brought. The wounded flesh is guarded most 
carefully and kept as entirely separated as pos- 
sible from the atmosphere, in order that the 
air may have no opportunity to contaminate 
with its poisons the cut. The result of an 
operation depends very largely upon the com- 
pleteness of these precautions. If the air has 
a chance it will do mischief, for, though no one 
would suspect it, it is full of germs. And often 
when not prevented, it has sown death in a 


Atr. 


77 


wound. These are not morbid fancies, they 
are acknowledged facts of science and ought to 
make us thoughtful. When we remember that 
we take this air into our lungs, we see that it 
has unlimited opportunity to sow the seeds of 
disease at the very centre of our system. It 
has a chance to pollute the stream of life at its 
very source. It makes a tremendous difference 
what sort of air we breathe. One of the essen- 
tial conditions of health is that we must breathe 
pure air. We cannot get strong if we live in 
bad atmospheres. 

The problem of ventilation is one of the 
most practical and important, and at the same 
time one of the most imperfectly understood 
and most thoroughly unsolved problems of 
architecture. We know how to build enor- 
mously high towers ; we know how to build 
rows of monotonous brick houses ; we know 
how to build monstrous business blocks ; we 
know how to build ungraceful and badly pro- 
portioned palaces; there are some who know 


78 


How to get Musctilar. 


how to build truly tasteful and elegant homes ; 
but we do not know how to build a structure 
that shall be decently ventilated, in which it 
will be possible to get a breath of respectable 
air. The Egyptians knew how to 'erect pyra- 
mids, the Greeks knew how to construct tem- 
ples perfect in their beauty, the Romans knew 
how to build aqueducts, the men of the Middle 
Ages were skilled in the art of raising majestic 
cathedrals ; but no generation and no national- 
ity has solved the problem of ventilation. We 
still occupy buildings in which nothing short of 
a cyclone will produce a change of air, in which 
you must choose between dying of suffocation 
and dying of pneumonia. The one thing which 
our edifices lack to-day is ‘‘the breath of life,” 
and fully nine-tenths of the maladies of men 
and women and children are due, I am con- 
vinced, to the impure air which they breathe in 
school, in society, and in their own homes. 
This is a vitally important matter, and, as a 
minister of the Gospel, I would enforce it upon 


Air. 


79 


your attention. You .cannot get strong with- 
out good air. If you live most of the time in 
bad air, of course you will be weak. If a com- 
mission could be appointed whose duty it 
should be to go from house to house and open 
windows every day, the health and the happi- 
ness of multitudes would be increased. Good 
air in the home, good air in the school, good 
air in the hall, good air in the church, good air 
in the office — this is worth more than paintings, 
or upholstering, or easy-chairs. We take the 
air into our lungs, it enters into us. Our first 
care should therefore be that it is as pure as 
possible. 

All this is a parable worthy of our earnest 
consideration. There can be no mental strength 
without good air. Intellectual ventilation is an 
absolute necessity. The mental atmosphere is 
often most unwholesome. It is full of germs. 
One of the worst impurities is gossip. This is 
a very pestilence ; it floats unseen, it multiplies 
itself. The mind that inhales the germ is likely 


8o 


How to get Muscular, 

to catch the infection. What mental strength 
can any one have who lives in such air. The 
‘mind so encircled unavoidably catches the ma- 
laria. Farewell, then, to all broader, grander 
ideas. Truer thoughts are impossible to a brain 
having this malady. It can think only little 
things, understand only small feelings. It is 

unavoidably warped and provincial, it cannot 

/ 

know truth. The great need in society to-day 
is a pure mental atmosphere. In the home, in 
the drawing-room, nay, alas ! in the church, the 
air is intellectually poisoned. It is full of 
gossip germs, to say nothing of any other im- 
purities. Of course, to breathe such an atmos- 
phere is to become mentally weak. Ventilation 
is needed. Now, I think, I have solved the 
problem of mental ventilation, and I will tell 
you my solution. The best ventilator is a great 
mind. A great mind will fill the air with great 
ideas, great thoughts, great truths ; it will make 
the atmosphere bracing and delicious. That is 
what Plato, and Dante, and Shakespeare, and 


Air. 


8i 


Victor Hugo, and Dickens, and Thackeray, and 
George Eliot will do for you. The gossip in a 
house always decreases as the library increases. 
The mental atmosphere is pure in proportion 
to the number of great m.en who live in it. 
Small talk goes out at the window where 
Shakespeare comes in at the door. Scandal 
cannot live where such men as Carlyle, and 
Emerson, and Milton, and Wordsworth are 
present. The mental atmosphere ceases to be 
malarious when such minds act on it. They 
disinfect it. It no longer bears the pestilence ; 
it becomes filled with the breath of life.'’ If, 
therefore, any man really desires to breathe a 
pure mental atmosphere, let him fill it with 
great men. Around his intellect there will be 
great thoughts, great conceptions, great truths. 
Breathing such air, taking such elements into 
its lungs, his mind will grow strong. 

In this connection I would say, that the Bible 
is a great ventilator for the mental atmosphere. 
The Bible is the work of the best minds of the 


82 How to get Muscular, 

Hebrew race. It contains the best thoughts 
which those minds had when they were at 
their best and highest. Moses, and David, 
and Solomon, and Isaiah, — the Statesman, 
the Poet, the Philosopher, the Prophet, — let 
them fill the air you breathe with their truth, 
their aspiration, their wisdom, their visions, 
then your mental atmosphere will be like 
the wind from the great ocean of mystery, it 
will come rolling over great waves of thought, 
and there will be in it the tonic from the 
very essence of life. It will be like the air 
upon the hill-tops, having in it the freshness of 
heaven and the sparkle of the stars. The con- 
dition of the mind depends upon the air which 
it breathes, and no mind can get strong unless 
its atmosphere is full of “ the breath of life.'’ 
And now as I close, let me dwell for a mo- 
ment upon the application of these truths to 
the human will. The will cannot get strong un- 
less it breathes pure air. Here, too, there are 
countless germs. The atmosphere is tainted. 


Air. 


83 


It is filled with temptations. There are temp- 
tations (?f selfishness, temptations of dishonesty, 
temptations of passion, temptations of appetite. 
The air of cities is peculiarly foul ; it is full, so 
to speak, of sewer-gas. The will breathes and 
catches the infection, we see drunkards and mis- 
ers and defaulters and libertines. All these wills 
grew’ weak because they breathed bad air. They 
inhaled invisible poison, and when once within 
their lungs it injured their entire life. There are 
certain localities where the air is particularly 
foul. These germs of temptation are especially 
abundant at certain spots. In saloons, for ex- 
ample, and along some streets. Some profes- 
sions and businesses are peculiarly dangerous. 
We always tremble for a life when it enters 

t 

such atmospheres. The will can hardly escape 
the pestilence that broods there. Lead us 
not unto temptation,’' the great Master taught 
His disciples to pray. The wise man stays as 
far as possible from these infected regions. If 
you desire a strong will, do not go where it will 


84 How to get Muscular. 

be exposed to poison and breathe in pestilence. 
The tourist who desired to be strong physically 
would carefully avoid all countries where chol- 
era prevailed, and would never think of visiting 
yellow fever districts. The will that breathes 
the air of saloons and slums will be certain to 
catch the infection. On the other hand, there 
are regions where the air is remarkably pure 
and invigorating. An invalid often regains his 
health and strength in a week by breathing 
the atmosphere of the. mountains. Tyndal, the 
great scientist, staggered out of foggy London, 
overworked and broken down. He went to 
Switzerland and stood on glaciers and inhaled 
the air, cold over fields of eternal snow. He 
recovered rapidly. The pure air of the ice- 
peak conquered the infection of the city, he be- 
came again a strong man.’' There are regions 
to which we can go where we can escape from 
the infection of temptation, and where our wills, 
though they are sick and weak, can become 
well and strong. Such a region is the mountain- 


Air. 


85 


top of meditation and prayer ; many a will has 
come staggering to this spot, sick, full of the 
pestilence which it had caught below. Stand- 
ing here upon the summit it has breathed great 
draughts of the keen, pure air encircling such 
serene exaltations, and with amazing rapidity 
it has regained its health. Those that wait 
upon the Lord,’' says the Psalmist, shall re- 
new their strength.” I do not care what dis- 
eases your will may have, the germs of every 
temptation may be festering within it. Your 
case is not hopeless. Your will may be renewed 
and made strong. You may yet be a man. 
There is a spot on this world where the air is 
pure, where the atmosphere holds within it 
the breath of life.” Draw near unto this 
spot, and you shall escape. There is a Presence 
here who will not cast you out. There is no 
condemnation here. Here the air is full of the 
healing, life-giving spirit of Eternal Love. No 
matter what your disease may be, there is heal- 
ing for it here. Though your sins be as scar- 


86 How to get Muscular. 

let, they shall be as white as snow ; though 
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” 
Here, while you commune with Him, God will 
'breathe into your nostrils the breath of life,” 
and you will become a living soul. 



RELIGION. 


“ The people that do know their God shall be strong.” 

— Daniel xi. 32. 


Religion. 


89 


RELIGION. 

There are two types of religion. The one 
is the child of weakness, the other is the parent 
of strength. The one flees from the world, the 
other overcomes the world. The one makes 
hermits, the other makes heroes. The one 
cries, Oh ! that I had the wings of a dove, for 
then would I flee away and be at rest ; ” the 
other buckles on the whole armor of God and 
goes out to fight the good fight. The one is 
the religion of sentiment, the other is the re- 
ligion of service. The two are not utterly and 
unapproachably separated. On the contrary, 
they are related, and the first is always expand- 
ing into the second. They are two great steps 
of one great experience. The man first comes 
to God in weakness, he flees for refuge from 
the conflicts in which he was being overcome. 
He hides himself in the Rock of Ages. He 


go How to get Muscular. 

casts himself for salvation upon God's love. 
That is the first step ; in it the man is empty 
and weak, but while he is thus hiding in God, 
he is filled with energy, his strength is renewed. 
He goes back a new man to conquer the world, 
which had been conquering him. The first 
type of religion has borne its fruit in the 
second. Out of weakness the man has been 
made strong. This is of course the object and 
purpose of religion, to fill the human being 
with energy. I am come," said Jesus, ^Hhat 
they might have life, and that they might have 
it more abundantly." Not to make hermits, 
but to make heroes ; not to take them out of 
the world, but to keep them from evil while 
they are in the world, is the purpose with which 
God visits men. The knowledge of God is not 
enervating or despair-producing ; it is vitalizing, 
invigorating, energizing. To touch God and to 
be touched by God is to be filled with life and 
power. As the prophet Daniel expressed it. 
They that do know their God shall be strong." 


Religion, 


91 


To-night I close my brief series of addresses 
on athletics. I have given several answers to 
the question, How to get strong,'' and have 
endeavored to show how essential are the parts 
played by exercise, rest, food, and air. There 
is one final word to be spoken, and I desire to 
speak that word to-night. The strength of a 
man depends closely upon the attitude of his 
inner-life. If that inner-life is groveling, or 
undecided, or ununited, or two-faced, the man 
will necessarily be weak. On the other hand, 
if the inner-life is on its feet, with a single eye 
and a sincere resolve, it will be full of power. 

The effect of the inner upon the outer, of the 
spirit upon the body, can hardly be exagger- 
ated. It would almost be accurate to say that 
our bodies are balloons. When full of spirit 
they are buoyant and potent ; when empty of 
spirit they are collapsed and dead. It is the 
spirit within the man that moves his arm, looks 
through his eye, hears through his ear, and 
thinks through his brain. It is the spirit that 


92 How to get Muscular. 

wills, the spirit that energizes the whole. And 
the state of that inner spirit life determines the 
strength or weakness of the man. Certain 
moods will give him ten-fold power. Indigna- 
tion, for example, may make a giant out of a 
very pigmy. So, too, enthusiasm is the key to 
victory. Let the inner-life be full of enthusi- 
asm and the body will do great deeds, and 
perform almost miracles. The great com- 
manders understood this. Napoleon enthused 
his soldiers, and so his army became invincible. 
They crossed impassable mountains and con- 
quered overwhelming odds. It was not in 
mere flesh and blood to do what they did. It 
was not the muscle alone, it was enthusiasm in 
and through the muscle that dragged great 
cannon over the Alps. His addresses to his 
soldiers set them on fire within. In this way 
poets have wrought revolutions. They have 
touched ‘‘the souks secret spring,'' the inner- 
life has been enthused ; then that inner-life 
working through men’s bodies has lifted mount- 


Religion. 


93 


ains and overturned the world. These are only 
examples; the principle which they illustrate 
is being recognized and acknowledged more 
and more. At the very centre of the problem 
of strength lies the condition of the inner-life. 
Arms mighty for the battle, feet swift for the 
race, eyes keen to discern, ears alert to detect — 
these are attainments to be desired. And like 
the fruit on the tree, they are the outgrowth of 
the inner-life. If this inner-life grovels, the 
burden cannot be carried by the man. If this 
inner-life faces two ways he cannot win the 
victory. It depends upon this inner-life whether 
he shall be weak or strong. Its attitude is the 
determining factor. If it is in one condition, 
the man will be almost irresistible. If it is in 
another condition, he will be impotent. “ The 
people that do know their God shall be strong.*' 
When the inner-life is in this condition, when 
it stands in this attitude, when it knows its 
God, then the man will be strong. This, then, 
is the final word which I desire to speak to- 


94 How to get Musailar. 

night. The man must be alive within or he 
cannot be strong without. 

I. Man’s spirit must have its loins girt about 
and its lights burning, it must have its energies 
tightened and under control, and it must have 
its faculties wide-awake. So much depends 
upon this alertness of attitude. Not a few are 
more than half asleep ; their powers are not at 
their command, they are relaxed, inattentive, 
slow. They are like a house at night, the lights 
are extinguished or burning dimly, the faculties 
are not radiant, the servants have retired, the 
master of the house himself is in bed. The 
powers are not fulfilling their functions, the will 
itself is droning in slumber. Ring the bell of 
such a' house, there will be no response; at last 
after repeated efforts the inmates will be 
aroused and there will be a sleepy answer to 
the summons. This is no unfair picture of 
some human beings. Now, the house when it 
is in this condition is, so to speak, at its weak- 
est. Those are the moments when marauders 


Religion, 


95 


can most easily secure entrance and work havoc. 
The house is most exposed and most impotent. 
So, too, of the man when his inner-life is in 
this slothful condition, he is most weak. Then 
it is that the thief breaks through and steals 
and destroys. Then it is that he himself blun- 
ders and fails. Few men have been defeated 
when they were at their best. Some cloud 
stole over their consciousness, some weight 
pressed upon their mind, they fell into a sort 
of mesmerized inactivity. Their faculties burned 
dim, flickered, some went out ; the girdings of 
their loins were relaxed ; for the moment their 
right hand forgot its cunning. There was not 
now the necessary promptness in their decision, 
nor the necessary wisdom in their choice. They 
struck, but the blow did not go home. They 
struggled like Samson, but they failed. They 
may have fallen .into this condition through 
overwork ; many a man has done that, worked 
too hard and put himself at the mercy of the 
world. They may have fallen into it through 


g6 How to get Muscular. 

sickness. They may have fallen into it through 

sin. Sin is the monstrous power that extin- 

guishes the lights and consumes the energies 

with sloth. Under its devastation the man 

staggers ; he who had been victorious becomes 

impotent. But whatever the cause may be, 

the result is the same. The man whose inner 

life is in this condition is weak. 

The man who knows God, on the other hand, 

must be awake. It is only as his every faculty 

burns at its brightest, that he can know God. 

It is only as every energy is tightly held by his 

will that he can know God. His perception 

must have the ' keenest edge, his reason must 

be filled with clearest intuitions. He must be 

/ 

at his best, on his high places, most a man, or 
he cannot know God. Indeed, this is exactly 
the experience of conversion ; I would define 
conversion as a waking up all over. Before 

conversion the human being is like the Prodi- 

« 

gal, under a spell that hides half of the truth 
from his eyes. He is held of a delusion, a cap- 


Religio7i. 


97 


tive of the prince of the powers of the air. He 
does not see that he is a poor outcast, in a wil- 
derness among swine. Then occurs his conver- 
sion ; he comes to himself, he wakes up all 
over. He says, I am perishing with hunger, 
I will go to' my Father.'' The lights of his life 
are now burning, the powers of his life are 
under his control. His loins are girt about ; 
he knows his God ; he is strong. My mission, 
as a minister, is to rouse the inner-lives of men ; 
to light extinguished lamps ; to trim flickering 
flames ; to rally the will to its authority ; to 
stimulate perception, and vitalize understand- 
ing. My message to every spirit is, Stand on 
thy feet, and God will speak to thee. Rise, 
play the man, gird up thy loins, light thy lamps. 
Awake ! know thy God, and thou shalt be 
strong." 

2. The inner-life must have faith in it or the 
man cannot be strong. A man cannot know 
God without faith. Indeed, my definition of 
faith would be, the soul’s cognition or percep- 


98 How to get Muscular. 

tion of God. The spirit has its intuitions, its 
perceptions as truly and as clearly as the intel- 
lect. The soul has an eye. Faith is a soul- 
sense, it is the soul's discerning of God ; and 
this sense must be active in the inner-life or 
the man cannot be strong. It is essential 
that there shall be faith within him. We reach 
in this the very heart of the matter. Faith in 
the soul is the source of strength, and when 
there is no faith there is only weakness. Con- 
trast the believing with the unbelieving ages. 
The former have been irresistible, the latter 
impotent. In the former there has appeared 
the splendor of David’s kingdom, in the latter 
the desolation of the captivity. The former 
have been full of positive energy, the latter 
have been possessed by enervation and inactiv- 
ity. Believing races have been progressive, un- 
believing races have been stagnant. It is the 
men of belief who have shaken the world. It 
was this that made the Ironsides of Cromwell 
so invincible. It was this that enabled the 


Religion. 99 

Puritans to establish their community in inhos- 
pitable New England. When this is in a man's 
soul, whatever else may or may not be true of 
him, we can be sure that he will be strong. 
We have only to examine our own experience 
to find these truths emphasized and endorsed. 
The moments when unbelief held us have been 
the moments when we were at our worst and at 
our weakest. It was then that we were blind 
to truth, it was then that we fainted before the 
adversity. It was then that we played the cow- 
ard, then that we committed the sin. Unbelief 
sapped our energy, oppressed our spirit, con- 
sumed our strength. We are ashamed of those 
hours. We wish they could be blotted from 
the calendar and out of remembrance. It seems 
as if in them our being collapsed and we ceased 
to be capable of anything noble. And then 
how like a full incoming tide, filling our nature 
once more with the freshness and volume of 
the ocean of life, was the return of faith. We 
awoke out of delusion. Once again our facul- 


lOO How to get Muscular. 

ties shed their radiance, once again our 
powers yielded to our control. We felt alive 
from the dead. Great things seemed possible 
once more. We became strong, because faith 

was in our souls. Science recognizes the enor- 

» 

mous power of belief upon and within a man. 
Looking at it from a purely material stand- 
point, the higher nerve-centres in the brain ex- 
ercise a tremendous influence over the system. 
The source of strength lies in them rather than 
in the muscle. The arms of Samson were just 
as massive, his shoulders were just as herculean 
when the Philistines captured him, as when he 
had burst the bonds like tow. The only change 
was an invisible change, so to speak, in these 
hidden nerve-centres. The muscles did not do 
their work now, because the spiritual energy 
did not flash through them. The attitude of 
this inner-life is the determining condition. If 
there is unbelief in it, the man will be weak. 
If there is faith in it, the man will be strong. 
This for you will be the secret of strength in 


Religion. 


lOI 


daily duty, in monotonous tasks, in weary dis- 
appointments, in painful griefs, in manifold 
temptations. You can be brave through them 
all, you can be happy through them all, you 
can be exultant through them all, you can be 
victorious through them all. This is the victory 
that overcometh the world, even Faith. Have 
faith in God. Let belief in the Eternal occupy 
your soul and you can never fail. The people 
that do know their God shall be strong.’' 

3. The inner-life must have hope within it. 
Hopefulness is exhilaration, inspiration, enthu- 
siasm. So long as there is hope in the soul, 
there is strength in the man. The faintest 
spark of hope is enough to vitalize a human 
being. We read with awe and wonder of what 
some prisoners have done in their imprison- 
ment. How they have filed great bars through 
with a piece of watch-spring, working for years 
upon a single bar. How they have excavated 
stones and tunnelled through thick walls with 
infinite patience and perseverance. What was 


102 How to get Muscular. 

it that nerved them for such a task ? What 
was it that strengthened them for such labors ? 
Simply the hope of escape which they cherished 
in their souls. It was hope that animated 
them, hope that encouraged them, hope that 
gave them purpose and energy. So long as 
this hope was in them, they were powers, forces 
working toward an end. If this hope had van- 
ished out of their souls, they would have col- 
lapsed and become impotent in despair. Byron, 
in his wonderful poem, The Prisoner of Chil- 
lon,'’ has depicted with the pencil of genius the 
steps by which a prisoner gradually lost all 
hope. How at first there was the yearning 
eagerness, the cherishing of expectation. How 
when that failed, there was the holding fast of 
even remote possibilities, the hoping against 
hope. How at last that died, the man became 
dead in despair ; and how when liberation did 
come, it found him utterly impotent and indif- 
ferent. 


Religion. 


103 


It might be months, or years, or days, 

I kept no count — I took no note, 

I had no hope my eyes to raise. 

And clear them of their dreary mote ; 

At last men came to set me free, 

I asked not why, and recked not where 
It was at length the same to me. 

Fettered or fetterless to be, 

I learned to love despair. 

My very chains and I grew friends. 

So much a long communion tends 
To make us what we are : even I 
Regained my freedom with a sigh." 

Ah ! we, too, are prisoners in a prison ; the 
world is a prison — pain, and suffering, and 
grief, and loneliness are like iron bars and stone 
walls round about us, shutting us in. So long 
as there is hope of escape in our hearts, hope 
of finding something better, no effort is too 
severe, we labor with patience and perseverance. 
We file through iron griefs, we tunnel through 
stony sufferings ; the thought of a larger liberty, 
the thought of a better life, the hope of heaven, 
make us strong. But let that hope die, and 


104 How to get Muscular, 

there will be neither power nor life, neither am- 
bition nor enthusiasmo Hope is the bright spark 
that can fill a human being with radiance. 
Hope can kindle the energies, and send the 
tingling currents of activity through every vein. 
Is there hope in the soul ? Prison walls are 
then only highways opening to joy. Exertion 
is progress. Struggle is glorious. Pains are 
steps to victory. Hope is the ruddy promise 
of the new day, it is the dawning that blushes 
upon the horizon, makes the clouds splendid, 
and the world like a dream of the Almighty, a 
dream opening into glad reality. Of all the 
rich treasures, the treasure of hope is one of 
the most precious. The man who holds hope 
in his inner-life will be strong. 

Whence shall we obtain this hope ? There 
is one unfailing source — knowledge of God. 
The man who knows his God will be a hopeful 
man. To know God is to feel beneath the 
everlasting arms, it is to dwell in the secret 
place of the Most High. What room for de- 


Religion, 


105 

spair is there that rests in such security ? The 
arrow may fly by day, the pride of man may 
work by night, the strife of tongues may rage, 
the pestilence may walk in darkness. Bathed 
in peace, he will care for none of these things. 
A sweet hope will sing in his heart and make 
liquid music while the discord rolls around him. 
In addition to this, if he knows his God, he 
will have learned from experience how God 
rules over and above all. How He can bring 
brightness out of shadows, and calmness out of 
storms. How He can make all things work 
together for good. The man who knows his 
God will not fear though the earth be removed. 
He will hope in God with a hope that maketh 
not ashamed, a hope that fadeth not away. 
The day of adversity will come to him, but he 
will calmly enter into it and calmly emerge 
from it at last. He will be mightier than en- 
mity, mightier than persecution, mightier than 
falsehood, mightier than misfortune, mightier 
than death. He will smile and sing, and make 


io6 How to get Muscular. 

sweet melody in his heart when these things 
increase around him. There will be a hope in 
his soul which will make him invincible. He 
will be a mystery to the archers ; they will 
shoot and yet not harm or disturb him. He 
will be a mystery to the vipers ; they will fasten 
on him, but he will shake them off. There will 
be something within him which the world can- 
not quench. or break. His life will be hidden 
with Christ. He will know his God, and there- 
fore he will be strong. 

Such, then, is the condition of the inner-life 
which will assure strength to the outer-life. 
When the inner-life knows its God, its loins 
will be girt about and its lights burning, it will 
have faith abiding in it and hope burning in its 
centre. When this inner-life occupies such an 
attitude and is in such a condition, weakness is 
an impossibility, the man will be panoplied in 
might. 

4. In addition to all this, the man who knows 
his God will be strong, because his God will fill 


Religion. 107 

him with Divine life. To know God is to hold 
intimate communion with Him ; it is to be vi- 
tally united with the Most High. We know 
Him when His Presence touches our soul, when 
there are contact and actual relationship. The 
branch, so to speak, knows the vine, when it is 
grafted in. Then the branch is strong, because 
the vine's life flows through it. It is full of a 
vitality not its own. Such is the condition of 
the man who knows his God. He is, we may 
say, grafted into God. The life of God flows 
through his individuality. This is Life Eter- 
nal,” said Jesus, ‘Ho know the only true God.” 
The inner-life of the man who knows God is in 
immediate personal contact with God. He is 
strong because he is filled with God’s strength. 
“ I live,” said St. Paul, “ yet not I, but the 
Christ who liveth in me.” “ I can do all things 
through Christ who strengtheneth me.” “ I 
am not alone,” said Jesus, “for the Father is 
with me.” I desire, in closing, to point out to 
each one this secret of strength. “The king- 


io8 


How to get Muscular. 


dom of heaven is within you.” There is an in- 
visible door in your inmost life ; through that 
door Divine energy can pulse into your indi- 
viduality; if you open that door you will be 
filled with power. At the centre of your soul 
there is a chamber, and if you will put Christ in 
that chamber, a new life, the Life Eternal, will 
throb through you ; you will know what it is 
to be “strengthened with might by His Spirit 
in the inner man.” How strong we might be: 
strong for duty, strong for conflict, strong for 
sorrow, strong for care, strong for disappoint- 
ment, strong for pain, strong for opposition, 
strong for loneliness, strong for betrayals and 
desertions, strong for life with all its vicissi- 
tudes, strong for death with all its darkness and 
silence. This is the secret of strength, this is 
the source of energy. If we have this in our 
inner-life, we will run and not be weary. Seek 
this first : this is the Pearl of Great Price ; it is 
the one thing that cannot be taken away from 
you. 

82 8 • 





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